which varied and enriched the landscape, indicating the effect 

 of that long ancestral residence of the Israelites within, and their 

 juxta position to the realm of the Pharaohs ; but it was not 

 until the embattled walls, and holy temple of Jerusalem, an- 

 nounced the resources, and advancement, and the prophets had 

 rebuked the extravagance and luxurious pleasures of that eternal 

 race. The queen of the East " had heard of the fame of Solo- 

 mon," and went to do him homage, his commercial fleets of 

 Ezion-Geber and Tharshish, brought him the gold of Ophir, 

 the silver, ivory, spices and precious stones of Africa and Asia, 

 the kings of Tyre and Arabia were his tributaries, and princes 

 his merchants, ere he " made orchards," " delighted to dwell in 

 gardens," or planted the " vineyard of Baalhamon." 



The Assyrians had peopled the borders of the Tigris and 

 Euphrates from the Persian Gulf to the mountainous regions of 

 Ararat, and their victorious princes had founded Nineveh and 

 Babylon, before we hear of the expensive gardens of Semiramis. 

 The Persian empire had extended from the Indus to the Ar- 

 chipelago, when the Paradise of Sardis excited the astonishment 

 of the Spartan General, and Cyrus mustered the Grecian auxil- 

 iaries in the garden of Celsense. 



The Greeks had repulsed the formidable invasions of Darius 

 and Xerxes, and Athens had reached the culminating point of 

 her exaltation, when the accomplished and gallant Cimon estab- 

 lished the Academus and presented it to his fellow-citizens, as a 

 public garden. Numerous others were soon planted and deco- 

 rated with temples, porticos, altars, statues and triumphal monu- 

 ments ; but this was during the polished age of Pericles ; 

 when Socrates and Plato taught their sublime philosophy, in the 

 sacred groves ; when the theatres were thronged to listen to the 

 enrapturing poetry of Euripides and Aristophanes ; when the 

 genius of Phidias was displayed in the construction of the in- 

 comparable Parthenon, and sculpturing the statues of the gods ; 

 when eloquence and painting had reached perfection, and history 

 was taught by Herodotus, Thucydides, and Xenophon. 



